SXSW Artist Spotlight: Gus Englehorn
For this edition of 360°Sound’s SXSW Artist Spotlight series, we sat down with professional snowboarder turned indie psych-pop singer-songwriter Gus Englehorn. His third album, The Hornbook, which dropped in January, is a collection of fantastical tales that, as the press release eloquently puts it, “magically transmutes the entire history of 20th-century rock ’n’ roll – ’50s golden oldies, ’60s garage spunk, ’70s glam flamboyance, ’80s indie transgression, and ’90s lo-fi weirdness.”
Gus is currently working on his fourth album with producer Paul Leary of Butthole Surfers fame. In this exclusive interview, Englehorn talks about the era- and genre-blending on The Hornbook, why prog gets a bad rap, and time traveling to Scarborough Fair.
His official SXSW 2025 appearance is at the Swan Dive patio on March 11 for the Mothland x Exclaim! Magazine x Project Nowhere showcase.
Editor’s Note: This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity. Scroll to the bottom to view the full video interview.
360°Sound: How would you say your new LP The Horn Book is a progression for you musically?
Gus Englehorn: I think, structurally speaking, I got really into telling stories along my journey of becoming a songwriter. And then eventually, telling stories can lead you into some pretty prog-y territory. Prog is so cool, because you can punctuate and illustrate the story musically, and it can lead you to some pretty wild structures sometimes, which are super fun. I really love prog rock a lot.
After the second record, I had just started thinking as I was listening to songs on the radio, I’m like, ‘So, what are the chords?’ I’ll look up the chords, and so often it’s just the same three or four chords over and over again. So, I’m like, okay, maybe I don’t even have to change the chords as much. So I think that’s maybe one of the biggest changes. I just kind of tell the stories over maybe a little bit more of a solid chord progression, instead of fluctuating.
I’m a fan of prog as well. I appreciate all the time signature changes and chord progressions. Prog takes you on a journey, like your record does.
Prog gets a bad rap, man. Punk came along, and then everybody’s like, ‘Oh, prog sucks.’ But I think, if you mix those two things together, it’s pretty interesting. There’s a lot of room for both of them.
Absolutely, prog-punk. You’ve said that when you were writing the stories for the album it felt like you were making a children’s book. Expound on that some.
It seems like at a certain point, I kind of begin to understand the character that the album’s gonna have. And it seems like every single time when I set out, I’m just kind of just poking around in the dark. But then about three quarters of the way through it, I start seeing that this is the direction it’s going. And with this one, I started realizing after a while, like I’d written six or seven songs, and it seemed like almost every one of these songs was a little bedtime story or something.
It was almost like a musical version of a children’s pop-up book or something that you would read to a kid before they went to sleep. So that’s what I would call a children’s book, and I figured I’d just call it The Horn Book.
The song “Thyme” stood out to me because I recognized the lyrics from “Scarborough Fair” that you used. Tell us about the inspiration for that song,
I was writing that song, and I just had that word ‘thyme.’ I kept saying thyme. I would just sing along with it, and after a while, I started imagining this story of someone time traveling, and it reminded me of “Space Oddity” a little bit, there’s this blast off sequence that I wrote into it.
I was working on it, and I couldn’t really figure it out. And then eventually I just said ‘parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme’ and then, in my mind, it’s a story about someone who’s time traveling back to Scarborough Fair, because I think that would be a pretty cool destination if I had a time machine.
Are you playing multiple instruments and overdubbing on your albums?
Yeah, it’s kind of no-holds-barred once we get to the album thing. Sometimes I’m like, ‘I wonder if I need to limit myself to being able to do these things live.’ And then I was like, ‘Nah, I don’t really care that much.’ It’s definitely a little bit different than the album, but somehow it ends up being the same.
I’ve actually been playing a lot of acoustic shows lately. I don’t think I’m gonna do any of that [during SXSW]. But yeah, I always start off writing them with an acoustic guitar. You hear them as they were when they were born, stripped out a bit.
What can people expect from your live shows at SXSW?
We’ll probably play a lot of The Horn Book, and then we’ll play a couple of the new ones that we’re working on right now, for fun. It’s just me and my wife, we’re just a two piece on stage, and she plays drums. I play guitar, and I sing, and I play some harmonica and stuff. But yeah, we’re not as rusty as we were. We played like six shows in Quebec and Ontario lately, so we’re road dogs at this point.
Anything you’d like to add about your music for our readers?
Let’s see. It’s always so hard to put it into words, isn’t it? It’s such a vaporous art form. But yeah, I hope you like it. I love sharing it with people. Feel free to come up and say hi at the shows. We’re friendly.
Keep up with Gus Englehorn on his official web site: gusenglehorn.com
Gus will perform a number of sets around Austin during SXSW 2025:
March 14 – Side Bar – 5:30 p.m.
March 14 – Reem’s Falafel – 10:15 p.m.
March 15 – 1171 Graham St. – 1 p.m.
March 15 – The ABGB – 3:20 p.m.
March 15 – Side Bar – 5:30 p.m.
